Rádio do Canibal (with Benzilla) / Radio do Canibal (with Benzilla)

Known mostly for being Brother Ali's DJ, Minnesota native BK-One dug into his crates, stocked with rare vinyls from a three-week tour of Brazil, and came up with a concept for his first album, Rádio do Canibal. A classically trained musician and capable DJ but low on production experience, BK recruited Twin Cities homie and up-and-coming beatmaker Benzilla to help piece together a set of tracks strictly from his collection of Brazilian music. From a production standpoint, Rádio do Canibal borders on flawless; Benzilla and BK have crafted remarkably inventive but indelibly hip-hop beatscapes from a variety of unusual entry points, interspersing spoken word testimony from a few renowned Brazilian musicians (Caetano Veloso, Hyldon, and Ivan Tiririca of Banda União Black) as they reflect on the roots of "black music" in their country. The lyrical side is where the album slouches a bit. For every moment of crate-digging joy, there's a cringeworthy line from one of the Rhymesayers camp. Consider this less-than-subtle raunch from Slug on the album opener, "Gititit": "Hush buttercup/What's the rush?/Gonna make the gutters flood when I bust this nut." And longtime hip-hop fans will likely take umbrage with Brother Ali's claim "Slug and me, the new EPMD." Rádio do Canibal's best moments come when guest rappers from outside of the Rhymesayers circle stop by — when Phonte of Little Brother joins Ali and the Grouch over the smoothed-out slap bass loop of "Here I Am," when Black Thought goes solo over the haunting reverb guitar lines of "Philly Boy," and when Murs lustily muses on the joys and pitfalls of young groupies over an unmistakable Gal Costa sample on "Eighteen to Twenty-One." BK and Benzilla also call on the Chicago-based Hypnotic Brass Ensemble to do their thing on top of an infectious electro-funk loop on the extraordinary instrumental track, "Tema do Canibal." But the record's hands-down highlight is "True & Living," which finds Raekwon sounding right at home as he spits slick Big Willy boasts alongside I Self Divine over a lively disco-funk MPB arrangement.